#Aston martin db9 volante update#
#Aston martin db9 volante manual#

New Bilstein shocks, redesigned upper control arms, and retuned bushings were installed in all DB9s for 2009, and although tuning for the coupe focused on sportiness, the Volante’s setup prioritizes refinement.Chelsea signed Barcelona forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on Thursday for a reported 10.3 million pounds or 12 million euros, bringing the club’s unprecedented transfer window expenditure to more than 240 million pounds.

Built on Aston Martin’s lauded VH architecture, the Volante has always been pretty rigid, but some reinforcements were added this year to the front sheer panel, contributing another 10 percent of torsional stiffness. The 4100-pound DB9 Volante is a proud GT, not a super-sports car. Still, Aston claims that 0-to-60 times for both manual- and auto-equipped DB9s are now down to a more estimable 4.6 seconds, and-even more to the point- it finally feels as if all horsepower were accounted for.

#Aston martin db9 volante manual#

We also like how the transmission paddles have been fixed to the column versus the wheel, but there were occasional moments when manual shifting led to some confusion on the part of the transmission, and when not in sport mode, we didn’t find shifts to be particularly fast. Our tester had the autobox, which we found to shift crisply and relatively quickly in sport mode, behaving in most respects like the excellent six-speed ZF transmission found in Jaguar’s XKR. The six-speed ZF Touchtronic automatic transaxle features revisions for slightly quicker shifts, although a six-speed, three-pedal manual is still available. Of course, the aural soundtrack retains all the glorious notes we love in this particular V-12, which just roars once the needle crosses 4000 revs.

#Aston martin db9 volante update#

This year’s update brings revised cylinder heads that increase the compression ratio from 10.3:1 to 10.9:1, putting 21 more ponies into the 5.9-liter V-12’s stable for a total of 470 at 6000 rpm, with torque remaining the same: 443 pound-feet at 5000 rpm. But in previous tests, we’ve noted that the 449 horses produced by the 2005–08 DB9s somehow didn’t feel like 449 horsepower. It’s good, then, that Aston Martin blessed the ’09 DB9 with more horsepower, a quicker-shifting automatic, and minor chassis tweaks, all intended to help bring its thrill factor more into balance with its immutable beauty.Ī Midcycle Refresh under the Skin, Not for the SkinĪny engine with nearly six liters of displacement spread across 12 cylinders should have plenty of power to motivate two tons of leather, wood, and aluminum with haste. That number is quick but not mind-blowingly so-just ask a Dodge Charger SRT8 or a Mercedes-Benz E550. An automatic coupe we tested a few years ago took 4.8 seconds to reach 60 mph from a stop. And frankly, the DB9’s curb appeal hasn’t quite been matched by its performance up to this point. That last term deserves a chuckle, because even for jaded automotive journalists, it takes more than a pocket-sized stainless-steel-and-glass transmitter to control the emotion elicited on rousing the 12 cylinders that live under the hood of a drop-dead gorgeous DB9 Volante.Ĭertainly, the DB9 could sell on looks alone, but when a car is this beautiful (and costs $200,000, give or take a shekel), performance expectations are high. In Aston Martin’s lexicon, four-seat convertibles are known as Volantes, center stacks are called façades, and in the case of the DBS and the 2009 DB9, the key has become an Emotion Control Unit.